Christmas in NC

We had such a nice time with my family. It went really quickly, even tho it was 10 days with 9 people in our house.  See my previous post about our night at ANNIE.  

Here a few more pictures from our Christmas in NC:

Lily & Daddy building a fire on Christmas Eve

Lily got roller skates from Auntie Em....watch out!

The girls with Grandpa & Grandma

All 10 of us (Chris & Lindsay are expecting in June)

Bowling...Lily loved it

Chris & Lindsay & our girls

I just had to document that I bowled a turkey & beat everyone

A HUGE thanks to our family for helping with painting at the new house, watching the girls, the making of many meals, and keeping everything running for 10 days.  Our girls got pretty sick over the holidays (Lily had a 104 fever & an her first ear infection); my mom was a huge help.

ANNIE

This year, my side of the family is here for Christmas in NC.  Last year we told our families that we just can't buy plane tickets twice a year anymore.  We were so excited when my family said they would come to us.  We had thought we would be having a quiet Christmas with just the four of us. Anyways, Jake & I decided to do an event for everyone's Christmas gift.  We found out that Thalian Hall was putting on ANNIE, so we got tickets.

Lily LOVES Annie.  She thought it was pretty cool to "meet" Annie after the play.

Merry Christmas from the Flaming's

House progress

A little update on the "new" house. After one coat of primer & three coats of paint on each side the kitchen cabinets are painted (touched up) & all back together. Jake primed & painted the original hardware.  This weekend Jake worked on the recessed lighting. The plywood is down, the new sink has arrived & Jake is going to do concrete counters. It's going to be lovely!

Other projects we've been working on: peeling off wallpaper (thankfully only a border) in three rooms. Preparing the walls for paint (Jake's on his second 5 gallon bucket of drywall mud). Removing hideous lighting & putting in recessed lighting.  Removing unnecessary doors & walling it up. 

advent calendar 2012

Remember last year, when I made our advent calendar? 

Well, last year it was rather difficult to find tiny gifts for each pocket, as well as gifts that didn't cost too much.  This year I decided to do something different for the advent calendar.

 I saw THIS idea on Pinterest & decided to do something similar to fill our advent calendar.

Here are our 25 activities for our advent calendar:

1. Read "The Secret of the Star"
2. Play Candyland
3. Draw pictures & mail to Grandpa & Grandma
4. Paint Lily & Mommy's toenails
5. Make popcorn & watch "Charlie Brown Christmas"
6. Get in the car & go look at Christmas lights
7. Read "All is Well"
8. Go get Frosty's at Wendy's
9. Ride the Polar Express at Mayfaire
10. Paint a picture with watercolors
11. Read Luke 2
12. Go get ice cream at Cold Stone (we have gift cards to use up)
13. Get out the beads & make a necklace
14. Get out the jingle bells & sing
15. Have hot cocoa with marshmellows
16. Go carol to Papa & Nonnie
17. Make a Christmas craft with Mom
18. Go see Santa at Mayfaire
19. Read "You are Mine"
20. Make a Christmas tree out of play-dough
21. Read "A Tale of Three Trees"
22. Turn on some Christmas music & make latte's once the girls are in bed
23. Decorate Cookies
24. Open up the Christmas Eve box
25. Make Jesus a birthday cake.  Open presents - Merry Christmas!

Ella - 6 months

Our "little" Ella turned 6 months on Friday.
She is 18 pounds 10 ounces & 26 1/2 inches long.
Ella, at 6 months, outweighs Lily at ONE year (Lily was 18 pounds 6 ounces).

Ella is so sweet & smiley.  She is a content baby.  She rolls over belly to back & is so close to roll over back to belly.  I think her chubby thighs are preventing her.  No crawling yet; she is content to relax & hang out.